Monday, May 14, 2007

So I'm really horrible with video games right, or for that matter, practically anything that demands decent display of co-ordinated motor skills.

The only game I was decent at was this Marvel fighting thing, but that must be because the game was configured such that aimless button-pushing, if done rapidly enough, can still save your butt somehow.

They need to market games like these for people like me.

For others of superior skillz though, there are games like Spiderman 3, which was what I attempted today.

The game was already loaded into Syahrul's PS2 so while he went off to the kitchen, I decided to tinker a little with it. It seemed to me that the whole point of the game was navigation, because geez! That was all I seemed to be doing.

I couldn't find any baddies to beat up into a messy, pixelated pulp.

Then I realized! Ah, that little grey circle with the tiny arrow! With increasing/decreasing numbers indicating my proximity to Bad, Needs-To-Be-Beaten-Up Person! How nifty.

C'MON I AM READY FOR SOME VIOLENCE, I said to myself. Now we all know that the superhero in question can swing from (concrete) tree to tree - puzzlingly enough, not quite like the animal that he is named after. Did no one consider this? Spiders don't swing?

#Edit: Wait, yes spiders do swing to make their webs. D'oh! But you know, the way Spiderman swings...I've always considered it more ape-like, no?

Hence and therefore, logically, swinging around from the buildings makes for much better transport speed but of course, I could not control le swinging. I'd do the special combo button thingy, and SWING SO WOAH AND THIS IS SO COOL then realize, shit, I'm still in the same spot. Or, I'd jump+crawl+swing and you'd think I'd make it to the roof top but no, of course not. I'd land on the concrete pavement, so gracefully that I'd leave a crater 2 meters wide.

The town council is not Spiderman's best friend, I suppose.

Then! Then, I found a really efficient way to navigate. I thought it was sheer genius.

And then the Boy, who's been watching me struggle for quite some time, he says: "Sayang. Spiderman doesn't walk."

Wherence the controller was thrown back at him with a swing that Spidey would have been proud of.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

My sister says that they are evidence of the remaining traces of my Spice Girls fanhood.

I shamelessly, vehemently concur.

They are a little bit trickier to match than I thought though, since I need to be wary of crossing the thin, thin line between snazzy-kitsch and tacky. We shall see, we shall see!

Its like someone (who? You? Figment of my shoe-addled mind?) told me..so what if the shoe is ridiculous and you won't really wear it. The point is that you POSSESS it, and you can tell all you children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren (because surely being a shoe whore runs in the genes) what amazing shoes you once had.

On a more introspective note, working with Jenn on a prose piece she wrote has re-affimed a notion I've always had in my head. To quote Ms. Champion: "I only write in heartache. Never in love."

I've been trying to disregard (read: not think about it) the fact that the reason why I have not been writing anything - anything personal - is because I am happy. I love, and I'm in love..which means I feel so thoroughly grounded, with no frayed emotional threads at all that I feel settled. Content.

You'd think that would be a good thing.

Well, I was never that fantastic a writer anyway so perhaps, all is as it should be. Mmhmm, yeah keep telling yourself that.